I've sworn off of

[JG]

anemones ! I swear that I will never buy one again - no matter how strong the temptation.

Left for a week long vacation - everybody in the 90 gallon was healthy and happy - even had a fish sitter - thank goodness .

Got a call toward the end of the week that my fish were dying.

Came home on Sunday - all but three fish were dead.

Looks as if one condylactis died ( possibly from high temperature) and started a dominoe effect.

The folks watching the tank thankfully were there to get the dead fish out and use some ammonia detoxifier until I returned to deal with the situation.

It took over 12 hours to clean out and reset the tank. Everything had to come out due to the loss of the inverts that were in the live rock. Each and every powerhead and pump had to be taken apart and cleaned

Been back up and running for 2 weeks now - everything looks great. But I really miss my fish.

Moral of the story - a 5 dollar anemone is not worth the risk to a couple of hundred dollars worth of fish and inverts.

My daughter is under strict orders to say "no no no" when I become weak while looking at the anemones.

 

[Fluff]

Wow, sorry for your loss.

 

[Nels22]

Makes me feel good, just bought one as a trial, cheap, so i don't feel bad when i don't like it, or it moves to close to other corals in my tank, i'll just get rid of it. How long was it doing well in your tank, and any signs of if and when it is dying??

 

[JG]

I had three - 2 condys and an atlantic carpet - all around a year old.

As for signs of decline - they will begin to get smaller and paler. They may also begin to move around and lose their "sticky"

 

[Jason]

welcome to the club

 

[schoeplein]

I was fortunate enough to be able to pull my carpet out before it perished... lasted about 6mo.

 

[Guest]

I guess anemone in captivity isn't really a good long term bed spacer in a SW tank. That's terrible JG. sorry about the loss. There's nothing positive I can come up with with the loss. I can only imagine how much you spent on your inverts that died.

I think my false percula will be OK without the anemone.